If you go to the Muslim Ambulance Society (MAS) TB centre in Kambekar street between 11am and 1:30pm, you will see a crowd milling about its gates. They are TB patients, there to collect the free TB medicines being given by the Muslim Ambulance Society TB centre.
The medicines are only available to Muslims. “We want to serve everyone, but this is a charitable organisation and we get the funds for the drugs through Jakat (octroi) sent from the Middle east and other countries on the condition that we use it only to help Muslims,” says Dr Abdul Rauf Sumar one of the founder members of the Muslim Ambulance Society.
Besides free drugs, Muslim patients get certain second line drugs that are not even dispersed by the government run DOTS program. “Sometimes we get patients who have been referred to us by prestigious institutions like JJ and PD Hinduja hospitals,” says Dr Sumar.
MAS runs a dialysis centre, 17 diagnostic centresand a general hospital (MH Saboo Siddique hospital) in Mumbai, which are open to everybody.“We offer medical services at subsidised rates. A dialysis costs only Rs390 per session at our centre as opposed to anywhere between Rs800 to Rs5000 elsewhere. Our institutions are no-profit, no-loss. We are here purely to serve,” adds Dr Sumar.
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